Twin Problems - Pakistan

[Indus Pakistan]

Nothing better demonstrates the malaise Pakistan is in then the twin problems. Both are rooty cause of the countries present issues.

• One in 200 Pakistani's pay tax.
• Exports are woefully miserable for a country of 200 million.

To put it simply out of a crowd of 200 Pakistani's 199 are not paying taxes leaving one sucker to foot the bill for rest of the crowd. Result will inevitable be disasterous. On the economic front 200 million people combined, working over one year including the so called big industrialists of Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad and all the farms, big and small generate about the same money for Pakistan from exports as a few million ex-pat workers bring in as remittances. This is horrendous and inexcusable.

Both of these issues need sorting out or Pakistan is not going anywhere but slide downhill.

 

[SQ8]

What is needed is actual analysts sitting down trying to find root causes and then resolving them. Current government knows the problem but looks clueless on true root causes.

 

[bananarepublic]

better governance with smart investment from the public sector to nurture new industries can be an option

 

[!eon]

Corruption is the only problem Pakistan has. Rest is all due to corruption.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Corruption is the only problem Pakistan has. Rest is all due to corruption.

Yes but not entirely. Pakistan is not the only corrupt country in the world. India or Bangladesh are not much better. Even China has problems. In Europe Italy is notoriously corrupt. So while corruption is a issue but it is not the sole factor - yes I know I am going against PM IK's mantra.

 

[Jugger]

Modern education can solve all of Pakistan’s problems, skilled workforce brings in new opportunities within the country and also abroad, an educated individual is more likely to start an innovative company than anyone else.

Pakistans fear of western education and influence is stopping it from using it’s biggest resource i.e it’s 200 million strong human capital.

So, someday, we can hear about the multi billion dollar global company from Pakistan.

 

[Trango Towers]

Another doom and gloom thread

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Modern education can solve all of Pakistan’s problems, skilled workforce brings in new opportunities within the country and also abroad, an educated individual is more likely to start an innovative company than anyone else.

Pakistans fear of western education and influence is stopping it from using it’s biggest resource i.e it’s 200 million strong human capital.

So, someday, we can hear about the multi billion dollar global company from Pakistan.

Actually I feel the lower strata of society do better then the middle/upper. This is especially so compared to India. Whereas you have your 200 million Dalits sat in slums in abject poverty our lower orders go abroad if needed illegaly and then send home remittances to their families keeping millions fed in the country.

 

[Hamza913]

Pakistans fear of western education and influence

What "fear"? Just because we're not immoral rats like many east of us doesn't mean that's the cause of our lack of development.

If you haven't got anything intelligent to say, don't say anything at all.

 

[SQ8]

Modern education can solve all of Pakistan’s problems, skilled workforce brings in new opportunities within the country and also abroad, an educated individual is more likely to start an innovative company than anyone else.

Pakistans fear of western education and influence is stopping it from using it’s biggest resource i.e it’s 200 million strong human capital.

So, someday, we can hear about the multi billion dollar global company from Pakistan.

Education is useless without exposure. I can educate you a PhD in nuclear physics but if your upbringing and exposure limits you to thinking vedic spaceships exist or that Djinn can be used for power generation then all those decay equations come to naught.

 

[Zulfiqar]

One of the problems is that many pakistanis don't like to pay taxes.

Having dealt with businessman for years (from SMEs to corporates) I have observed that nearly everyone tries to avoids taxes and our taxmen (the FBR) is equally involved in helping them get off easily by showing them the loopholes.SMEs especially try to be as off the books as possible.People hide revenues and use prizebonds,hard currency (PKR and FX both) for that.

In any type of industry/business there are only few main sources of capital like Human and financial/physical (in form of raw material inputs/machinery/energy e.t.c). It is not difficult to find variation between expenses reported and the expenses actually incurred.

We need to digitize our currency (PKR) by incorporating blockchain technology and go cashless as soon as possible. You don't need hard currency in current day. When every transaction record is available then people will not be able to avoid taxes.

We are moving towards that but it will take time. We need to upgrade our framework in order to expedite the transition as soon as possible.

The steps are:

Get cheaper energy.

Cover every corner of the country with internet signals. The investment by edotco and dawood group was helping towards just that by using the towershare model. Sadly the previous,interim and current government were sleeping and did not accord the approvals.

Encourage use of mobile wallets (mobilink bank has 15 M customers, easy paisa has somewhat similar customer base). We need to expand on that.

Eliminate any currency denomination over PKR 100 (yeah it is hard but people will adapt)

Go cashless and use blockchain tech.


W.R.T exports, I have previously worked on bank side of import and export transactions and have used weboc. FBR and SBP had done a good job by using weboc for every import and export transaction (this has helped match the customs and financial date w.r.t every deal). However, the afghan side export is still manual.


We need to broaden our export product base and use technology to reduce our product costs in order to improve margin or remain competitive with rest of the world.

Look at vietnam and turkey. They have a smaller population than ours but they have more punching power.

 

[Dubious]

Nothing better demonstrates the malaise Pakistan is in then the twin problems. Both are rooty cause of the countries present issues.

• One in 200 Pakistani's pay tax.
• Exports are woefully miserable for a country of 200 million.

To put it simply out of a crowd of 200 Pakistani's 199 are not paying taxes leaving one sucker to foot the bill for rest of the crowd. Result will inevitable be disasterous. On the economic front 200 million people combined, working over one year including the so called big industrialists of Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad and all the farms, big and small generate about the same money for Pakistan from exports as a few million ex-pat workers bring in as remittances. This is horrendous and inexcusable.

Both of these issues need sorting out or Pakistan is not going anywhere but slide downhill.

I was having a chat with a Spanish colleague not too long a go...he was soo pissed with the politics of his country he said 1 whole generation needs to just die before the country can recover

 

[Menace2Society]

My father is in his 70s, old school Pakistani from the golden period. Moderate, proud, articulate, straight talking. Hallmarks which made the 30s and 40s born generation so strong and pioneering.

I have no idea whats happened between 60s and 2000 to produce a generation so incredibly stupid they can't even get the basics right. These people now have have offspring who are copying their idiotic parents. So its a double blow to the national psyche.

You have the "liberals" either brandished for being pro western in thought or Indian bollywood centric. Then you have the religious right which makes up the majority of the composition - angry, brash, anti everything, very dumb and have children with the same traits who are spewing their nonsense on forums online.

I lived in Pakistan in the 80s and 90s and whilst it was well on course on its descent into banana republic level it still had some of the principles which made it so successful in the early years.

Post 9/11 its a radicalized uneducated mess who refuse to pay tax.

If anyone that can coerce this mindset to change then its Imran but he was a very difficult task ahead of him. Like poster has said above we may need to wait it out for 2 generations to die before things can improve. Sadly this is well past my lifetime.

 

[Jugger]

Actually I feel the lower strata of society do better then the middle/upper. This is especially so compared to India. Whereas you have your 200 million Dalits sat in slums in abject poverty our lower orders go abroad if needed illegaly and then send home remittances to their families keeping millions fed in the country.

It will not hurt anyone if they can find the required jobs in Pakistan itself rather than going abroad to do unskilled or semi skilled work.
Homegrown industries with huge exports will solve this problem.

It’s better to export products rather than people.

What "fear"? Just because we're not immoral rats like many east of us doesn't mean that's the cause of our lack of development.

If you haven't got anything intelligent to say, don't say anything at all.

Exactly, the fear that education will cause immortality like in other countries (which I think is false) is dragging your country down.

Education is useless without exposure. I can educate you a PhD in nuclear physics but if your upbringing and exposure limits you to thinking vedic spaceships exist or that Djinn can be used for power generation then all those decay equations come to naught.

Good point, I have seen highly educated individuals doing the most stupid things in the name of religion but I would like to say that an educated individual is more likely to not believe in flying animals and flat earth.

It might take a few generations to see the changes but it will happen nonetheless.

 

[Foo_Fighter]

Education is useless without exposure. I can educate you a PhD in nuclear physics but if your upbringing and exposure limits you to thinking vedic spaceships exist or that Djinn can be used for power generation then all those decay equations come to naught.

I do agree with your thought of balanced learning and exposure, but very poor methapor. Like me saying that God will fly on a white winged horse and go to the moon as per the holy text book while the former being just an imagination regarding Vedic stuff. Any one can make fun of these old records and perceptions. However, from such a senior person like you it is just shame.